Council agrees position on EU 2018 budget

The Council of the EU agreed its position on the EU budget for 2018 on 4 September 2017. According to the Council, next year's budget should be mainly about growth and jobs (more than € 122.5 billion, or 85% of total payments), security and handling the migration crisis, but it also wants to keep enough financial leeway to respond to unforeseen needs. Nonetheless, the Council position foresees budget cuts in several policy areas, actions and programmes (including Horizon 2020), compared to the European Commission's draft budget. In total, the Council foresees €158.9 billion in commitments and €144.4 billion in payments. This is an increase of 0.6% and 7.4% respectively compared to the 2017 EU budget.

The European Parliament can still adopt amendments to the Council's position. If it does so by 26 October 2017, a three-week conciliation period will begin on 31 October 2017. The aim of conciliation is to reach a joint position of both institutions on next year's budget by 20 November 2017.